All Things?

Once a pastor was visiting his sister’s family when a bad snowstorm stuck. For days they were stranded until finally they all showed signs of hypothermia and the two youngest children went to sleep for the last time. The father was in denial of their situation and tried to look on the bright side and ignore the looming truth. The eldest son had a mental breakdown and sat rocking back and forth muttering the Lord’s Prayer under his breath and completely disconnected from reality. The mother and the pastor then got into a debate, the pastor said that, in the long run, no matter what happened to them it would be a good thing because God works everything together for good. The mother disagreed arguing that the deaths of three children could never be good and even if God had a plan, they were to suffer a cruel fate.

When they arrived at the kingdom of Heaven the two little children were greeted by God first, their innocence and purity shining like stars and they laughed and ran off to play. God greeted the elder brother next, taking away the anxiety that had plagued him since birth and revealing the brave young man he had always been. Next, God greeted the father, who wept and God whipped his tears away and showed him how he had lived the life of a righteous man who never stopped having hope. The pastor was next and he fell before God, knowing all his unworthiness and all those whom his ministry hadn’t reached, but in his love, God showed him all the souls that he had saved through his lifetime of service and all those who would yet still join them in paradise due to his efforts.

Lastly, the mother stood all alone having seen her family enter. “Why am I here?” She asked, “When push came to shove, I doubted You. I doubted in Your plan, and I doubted in how You make all things good.”

“Beloved,” God replied, “My own Son, who I love, doubted that I was with Him on the cross. You asked how the deaths of your children could be good, it was not good, it was a tragedy. But I will turn that tragedy into a miracle to soften the hard heart of your mother, so that she too will one day enter into my kingdom. Doubt doesn’t mean you don’t love Me, it means you’re human.”

My youngest daughter recently had a dream that served as the inspiration for this story. As my youngest daughter wrote this, she is suffering from a disease that makes her life miserable and has for years and is also has gotten worse. She lives at home with her mother and me and is unable to keep a job and often unable to get out of the house. She often wonders in the middle of the worst times of this disease if it would have been better if she hadn't been born. I am sharing this to let you know this wasn't written by a person who is just sitting behind a desk with perfect health and a well-paid job, it wasn't.

Did Jesus fail? (No)

Did Jesus fail when he appointed Judas an apostle or did he give Judas the opportunity to be something more and Judas chose otherwise? Sometimes we fail, and sometimes we don't fail but situations and people cause unexpected results.  If we were doing the right thing, maybe an unwanted result is not a real failure. Jesus did all the right things. He had all the right motives. He actually had the best in mind for Judas, but Judas chose otherwise. When we examine our lives we need to be willing to take a chance knowing that we can give our best and things not go as we wanted. This isn't a failure, it's life. Isn't it the fact that Jesus had a failure? Maybe not, Jesus offered the right path, but Judas had failed. Jesus had success with all the others. We don't look at Jesus as being a failure because of Judas so why do we give ourselves such a hard time for a failure?

Decide now how you're going to respond to negative comments and criticism because they are going to come. If you're not prepared you'll probably react badly. Choose now to act like Jesus not to take offense and to continue to do the right thing 

A Very Small Chapter

Just for the fun of it. I have decided to place here a new chapter I wrote for a story I thought was mostly finished. It is being dropped in a place where there is a slight drag in the story.  

 Conquest (leader of the renegade gorillas) sat a little ways from the camp keeping watch. His brow furrowed as he listened to the sounds of the forest. The group he had with him was still close enough that Conquest could still hear the sounds of the large birds in the trees not far away waiting till morning to continue feasting on the dead. Other sounds were moving in the direction where they had come from reminding him that these birds weren’t the only creatures who fed on the dead.  

Conquest straightened his back, lifted his head, and whispered “Let them do what they will, soon we will give them even more to feast on. I fear nothing.” His final words had a slight quiver in them. Conquest in spite of his words was afraid.

“Soon everything will be in place.” Conquest paused but looked out into the dark as if inspecting something only he could see. He could see it in his mind everything laid out and prepared. He looked over to where Link slept. “Little spy you don’t even realize you’re sleeping next to one of my newest weapons.” With those last words, Conquest focused on Max.  

A smile crossed Conquest’s face. It wasn’t a happy smile. It was a smile filled with meanness. If Max or Link had seen that smile, they might have run in fear or just shook falling to the ground. “As promised,” Then Conquest's smile became even wider, “I will become Master of the forest.”  

It was at that moment even I the teller of this story had to look away. When I looked back it was as if Conquest’s eyes reached across space and meet mine. I was afraid. How could Conquest see a person writing a story far, far away? I nearly quit writing leaving this tale unfinished but then it happened.

“Not even the Creator can stop me,” Conquest said through gritted teeth.

The spell was broken. Conquest lied and deep down inside he knew it.

Illustration by Don Lee. 

Walking Between The Types (the personality types that is)

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NLT

Jesus did a lot of intense ministry. However, if you read carefully, you see a pattern of rest. You see him taking time to go to parties, going off alone, and sleeping when others couldn’t. We do have times where the Bible specifically says he prayed all night but other times he went off alone or went off alone with his disciples. Yes, he did the occasional miracle on the Sabbath, but other than that he didn’t break it even by the Pharisees' standards.  I don’t see it as unscriptural to say he took days off and made sure to get a good night’s sleep. Looking at the number of times God commanded rest and feasts, I believe Jesus would not have been called a driven person but neither could he be called a type-B personality either.

So how does that apply to us and this scripture? Jesus lived the yoke he called us to wear. He worked hard, rested well, take time away, and when the time is right have a party. So maybe we should go and do likewise. 

This might not make you laugh, but it should make you smile because you can relax a little.

Neither rich nor poor...

Just a reminder to self (and you)...

I have noticed that we as groups move between extremes when it comes to dealing with issues. It seems that finding the middle ground is difficult. Yes, I do realize that often people choose the boundaries themselves, so they look like they are moderate or fair. I hope I am being on point and not extreme today, and this brings me to what the scriptures say about the rich and the poor.

First, if we look at scripture being neither rich nor poor is a comment about the character of the person. We see both very rich and very poor who are faithfully serving God in the pages of the Scriptures. Being one or the other doesn’t make you a better or a worse person (Proverb 22:2).

Second, we also see both rich and poor people as being corrupt and evil. There are dangers in either, which could lead us astray. This is why Proverbs 30:8-9 records the prayer of a man who says, “First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.”

Finally, we are commanded not to give preferential treatment to anyone poor or rich. Truthfully, the rich are frequently treated better but that is not because they are better but because people hope to get something from them. A poor person can’t give you what they don’t have. However, scripture makes it clear we aren’t to show preference because they are rich or poor. Nowhere is clearer than Leviticus 19:15, “Do not twist justice in legal matters by favoring the poor or being partial to the rich and powerful. Always judge people fairly” (NLT).

Depending on which group you are in I’m amazed at the people who condemn either the rich or the poor. You would think that the poor would condemn the rich and the rich the poor, but it isn’t always the case. I’m also amazed at how people define rich and poor. For most people in America or the West, we see rich as people who are millionaires or billionaires, whereas the rest of the world would see nearly all of us in the West as being rich. What is the difference between 10 million and 10 billion? If you’re the one with 10 million, you see a big difference. If you are making $2 a day, the difference between $35,000 a year and 10 million only means one has a little bigger house because both are rich.  

So, what does all this mean? How does this apply to us? We need to treat all people right no matter what is in or not in their bank account. We also need to be honest about ourselves. For me, CS Areson, in Western terms, I’m poor or perhaps in the low middle class, but in terms of wealth as history and most of the world looks at it, I’m rich. So, according to Proverbs 30:8-9, I need to watch out I don’t dismiss God and his teaching because it will be a danger.

Now look at yourself. If you can read this you’re probably rich too so watch yourself.

Why do we want church growth?

So you want growth? Why?

 On December 7 of the fourth year of King Darius’s reign, another message came to Zechariah from the LORD. The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech, along with their attendants, to seek the LORD’s favor. They were to ask this question of the prophets and the priests at the Temple of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies: “Should we continue to mourn and fast each summer on the anniversary of the Temple’s destruction, as we have done for so many years?”

The LORD of Heaven’s Armies sent me this message in reply: “Say to all your people and your priests, ‘During these seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn, was it really for me that you were fasting? And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves? Zechariah 7:1-6

Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. James 4:2b-3

This week Selma Church Church has been studying James on Wednesday nights. As I read the passage from Zachariah in my personal devotional time it hit me that these two scriptures went together. The people were morning and fasting for all the wrong reasons. They were doing it for selfish motives. The loss of the Temple was horrible but how they were responding was according to God only for selfish motives. 

This reminded me that we can also be praying and fasting for good things but have impure motives. We might say we are doing it for a good reason but the real reason is selfish. It's like the person who says that they are praying for people to start coming to church but then later confess that the church needs more money, teachers, and prestige, just to name a few. 

Church growth is a good thing, right? Maybe, if it means more faithful servants of God, but if it means anything else then all we have is a club that gives people the illusion of spiritual security. What if what we end up with is what Jesus warned the Pharisees about when he said that their disciples became "twice the child of hell you yourselves are!"   Matthew 23:15 Ouch. 

Let's admit here that if the ingredients in a recipe are poison the product will be poison. Yes, God can and does do miracles in churches that had wrong motives but a miracle is always an exception and not the rule. 

So why do we really want church growth? 

Are we willing to accept what that really means? More immature Christians in the church, More work not less, sharing power, disagreements, change... 

On the flip side, if it's godly growth, it means making a bigger impact for God in your community, seeing more people commit to God, encouraging, testimonies...

At the end of the day, growth is God's job, our job is to be faithful and to have the right motive.

 Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Killing potential

If you believe...

 John Maxwell in his book Developing the Leaders Around You says, "When a leader does not believe in us. success is very difficult for us to achieve." As I thought of that I how deep that principle goes? After a few minutes, I thought it went far further than most in leadership realize. 

There are times when people are given places of leadership and the person struggles. The person who places them there will sometimes tell themselves and others, "I knew they couldn't make it." Yet, is it completely true? If someone really believes in someone they will invest in them and do what they can to help. However, they will not give that to someone they believe will fail. In the end, they are proved right, but perhaps in truth, they helped make it so. They might have done it without even consciously thinking about it. They don't remember the encouragement and help they gave the "winner" and equally forgot how they discouraged the "loser." 

I can't help but think about situations I have seen a leader put someone in charge of something and say, "Try not and make it worse" and then disappear. On the contrary, calling, encouraging, and in small ways supporting another person saying literally or figuratively, "Knock it out of the park, I know you'll do great." Surprise of surprises the leader gets exactly what they expect.

Perhaps in leadership development, it's also true, "If you think you can or think you can't, you'll get what you expected."

As leaders let's not kill potential by working toward failure in others.